2D Still to a 3D Dolly Shot, page 2
Page 1The Trees on the Left
The two trees on the left foreground are a little more complex.
The bottom of the front tree is visible, with grass growing around it. It needs to be cut out carefully, so that there is no visible discontinuity when it moves later.
The tree immediately behind it has a different problem. Since the front tree is blocking our view of the back tree, we won't be able to move either tree without a gap appearing between them. Since an effective three-dimensional effect depends on objects moving in front of each other, we will have to extend the tree trunk so that we can move the second tree out from behind the first.
One possible brush setting for the eraser tool.
Erasing the background is still straightforward for the trunk. For the roots, I made the decision to leave some of the grass. The roots on the left form a slight ledge. Discontinuities like this are useful - there are no visual cues to indicate if it is a small gap or a large one, so the roots can be moved almost any distance vertically without breaking the illusion.
Erasing around the tree roots
On the right, erase around the edge, leaving a soft edge so the difference between the ground and the tree is less obvious when it gets moved. Alternately, you could cut close to the roots with a harder brush and clone out the edge from the background.
Put the second tree on its own layer, and erase the background, including the tree that is in front of it. This leaves an obvious edge. The photo doesn't have enough information in it to create the 3d effect.
Now is an excellent time to use the clone tool. The clone tool will be needed anywhere we need to add information that was previously covered by an object in the foreground.
The clone stamp tool
Using the clone stamp tool is easy. Hold down Alt and click on the point you want to copy, then just move to the spot where you want to add information and paint. Since the tree trunk is a cylinder, keeping the source and target points in line with the trunk will extend the trunk downward, behind the foreground tree. Sampling from different areas of the trunk and varying aligned and unaligned cloning will create an effective blend.
tree_left_foreground_2
tree_left_foreground_1
How far the trunk should be extended depends on how much of it will be visible. The more the tree will move, the more you'll have to paint in.
Once the four trees are done, remember to name the layers.
My names for the layers
The two background layers
Cloning the Foreground out of the Background
The trees may be cut out, but there is still a problem: moving a tree reveals a duplicate tree hiding behind it! We don't need the background now, but they are still there. We could erase them, but that would just leave unsightly gaps in the background. It's time to use the clone tool again.
Duplicate the background layer again. This time we'll be working on the middle space -- everything on the hilltop except the foreground trees. Rename it to be the "ground" layer.
The two straight trees on the right are the easiest to remove. Start on the middle of the trunk, where there are piles of leaves in the background. Using the clone tool with a semi-hard brush, clone the leaves over the tree trunks.
Bad use of the clone tool: the repeated pattern is visible and distracting.
Good use of the clone tool: no pattern is apparent, and the cloned patches match the neighboring texture.
When cloning, you want to avoid repeated patterns that appear obviously fake. Sample from both sides, trying to preserve the slope of the ground. Try to mimic existing structures, and blend different patterns from different areas together. Especially, be sure to sample from widely different areas -- on this photo a good source would be clumps of leaves from further up or down the trunk, or from a different part of the photo altogether.
Another option is to use the healing brush to fix any glaring mismatches. The healing brush is only useful after the clone tool in this case, but it can help hide sharp clashes between different parts of the cloned image.
Cloning out the foreground is easily the most tedious and time-consuming part of the whole project.
Ground Layer